I believe it's still unknown how much of the Animated Arcee issue is scalpers and how much of it is fanboys buying 3-4 for themselves and how many buying it for girls. A lot of people seem to think that it's sooooo easy to predict how popular a character will be and that Hasbro dropped the ball on Arcee and the club dropped the ball on PCP so let's see how good people are at predicting how Hot Rod will do.

Things to take into consideration:

Similarities
1) Animated line
2) 1st use of the mold
3) TRU exclusive
4) Produced in the same amount (I'm assuming, of course I can't confirm)
5) Both suffer end-on-line syndrome

Arcee
1) It's a girl-bot
2) It's pink
3) 1st Arcee toy that resembles G1 toy
4) Screen time
5) Packed with Cybertron Ironhide
6) Released in Winter/Spring
7) Japanese Version news available (but at the time no pics)
8) People did not anticipate her rarity and took their time looking for her

Rod
1) It's NOT a girl-bot.
2) It's not pink.
3) Name recognition. He's been around.
4) Screen action.
5) Packed with Ironhide
6) Released in summer/fall
7) No news yet on Japanese version. (Chrome bow?)
8) The arcee issue may cause people to over-react when Rod comes out.

Well Animated Rodimus is is anticipated almost as much as Arcee, and unfortunately there is a growing possibility he and Ironhide maybe the last Animated releases.

Websites like our own beloved TFW and others are making the scalpers more aware of what the hard core collectors are wanting and the fact the design will be much more desirable to kids than Arcee will add to the demand so I not only think Rodimus will be scalped as much as Arcee i believe there is strong evidence to suggest it could be worse.

Also unless somehow the remaining yet to be released Animated figures get wide releases we are likely looking at Scalping of Arcee magnitude for most of what is left if not all.

PArt of why Arcee was scalped so much is because that is the only Arcee toy that approximates her G1 design. As Ironhide and Rodimus have both gotten multiple toys before, I don't see scalping as that big of a problem for them (compared to Arcee at least). I think we can rest easy here.

Rodimus would probably be scalped along the same lines of Titanium Grimlock and Mirage. He would still be findable, but not very easily.
Judging from the speculation from when the line was initially rumored to be canceled, Arcee was a much, much more desired figure than Rodimus was. People were angry that Arcee probably wasn't going to get released. Scalpers took note of this, and took advantage when Arcee was finally released at Toys R Us.

I found Arcee with the help of a fellow board member selling at cost. Since I was able to get a hold of her, I was able to find her on the pegs. I buy a couple and help out fellow board members that are looking for her at cost+shipping. I will do the same for Rodimus. I want to keep him off the hands of scalpers and in the hands of collectors and kids as much as possible.

Oh yeah, you guys know that threads like this will only add Rodimus to the shopping list to scalpers.